The Road: Thieves, butchers, nature, starvation, cannibals, godlessness, forgetfulness. “Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it,” author McCarthy writes.
D.C. roads: Frakin’ one-third of roads in D.C. are in a godawful state of disrepair. It’s $458 a year motorists spend every year on extra vehicle expenses. DCist’s Tommy Lee alone lost five innertubes this year. “Anyone who drives around the region, especially in Northern Virginia, knows that roads are getting worse,” Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance president Bob Chase says.
Which is worse?
After reading the Washington Post report on the streets, I think I’d take my chances facing the dark vectors of McCarthy’s imagination. The future for D.C. streets is by far the bleaker: “Although the stimulus package will provide $27 billion nationwide for highway projects, including $124 million in Washington, $431 million in Maryland and $694 million in Virginia, the report’s authors said this amount can be only a beginning to more investment.”
Just 27 percent of roads were merited as “good” by drivers. But of course, if that number improves, it only increases the number of people who are able to drive.
Shudder.
